This invention concerns improvements in or relating to apparatus for dispensing liquids of the kind including a measuring chamber adapted to be filled with liquid and valve means adapted in operation thereof to prevent further liquid entering the chamber and to permit discharge of the contents already held. Apparatus of this kind is used where it is desired to dispense liquids in discrete quantities whose volume is a fixed measure.
A particular application of such apparatus is to be found in wide-spread use in public houses, hotels, clubs and like establishments for the dispensing of spirits and like beverages. Many such devices are sold under the Registered Trade Mark "Optic". Equally such devices are used in cafes, restaurants and the like for dispensing quantities of concentrated beverages such as orange or lemon squash in which a fixed quantity is required for dilution with water to make up a beverage of the correct strength.
Such devices as are currently known and in use suffer from a number of disadvantages. For example, an air port to allow air to enter the measuring chamber to replace its contents when leaving the chamber is provided, but this is disposed in an upper region of the chamber and is open upwards with the result that dust and other dirt is allowed to enter the port whence it passes into the measuring chamber to contaminate the beverage in question.
Again, such devices as are known include an operating member comprising a pair of radially outwardly directed arms between which lies the port whence issues the liquid. To operate the device the rim of a cup, glass or like container is engaged with the arms which are moved upwardly by vertical urging of the container. The fact that the rim of the container is used to apply force to the operating member is another source of contamination since with repeated use germs can be passed from one person to another almost as if they had made oral contact.